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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Pretty cute, it is a series tho šš I gotta pay more attention to that detail
adventurous
emotional
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It was a slow start, got better in the middle, and was interesting at the end. Iām curious as to what happens in the next book.
(4.5 stars) I loved this book! Everything from the characters to the world building was super interesting, and the further in the story you get, the more it becomes less of a retelling and more of its own unique story, especially the last 3rd of the book. When I picked this up I was thinking it was going to be a stand alone, but it is not, so get ready for a cliff hanger! My few complaints are that there were a few parts with descriptions that confused me, and also there was a bit of repeating descriptions, I especially noticed ācrinkling eyesā, but that is also a stylistic choice. The pacing was a bit slow at times, but in some parts that was good. Iām so excited to see what will happen next and how the story will end :)
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The ranking is mostly due to the fact that there was a plot hole error in Chapter 10.
Things you should expect when picking up this book.
#1 It is not a standalone! The author probably should have labeled it as Book 1 because there is most definitely more adventure to come.
#2 While it is obvious that it is a Little Mermaid retelling it isn't a cookie cutter of Disney's nor Hans Christen Andersen's story although elements from both (more Disney than the other). Don't expect talking animal friends in this tale! You won't find them.
#3 The unexpected. I didn't expect things to change so drastically like they did towards the last 25% of the book (maybe earlier).
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I had forgotten about the error until I was writing up my report for my reading journal (it's how I keep track of what happens in a book so I hopefully won't have to re-read in order to remember plot points.) I feel bad for those that didn't enjoy it or saw it differently than I did. I was a little bit hurt and heartbroken, but I bounced back a bit there at the end.
Things you should expect when picking up this book.
#1 It is not a standalone! The author probably should have labeled it as Book 1 because there is most definitely more adventure to come.
#2 While it is obvious that it is a Little Mermaid retelling it isn't a cookie cutter of Disney's nor Hans Christen Andersen's story although elements from both (more Disney than the other). Don't expect talking animal friends in this tale! You won't find them.
#3 The unexpected. I didn't expect things to change so drastically like they did towards the last 25% of the book (maybe earlier).
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I had forgotten about the error until I was writing up my report for my reading journal (it's how I keep track of what happens in a book so I hopefully won't have to re-read in order to remember plot points.) I feel bad for those that didn't enjoy it or saw it differently than I did. I was a little bit hurt and heartbroken, but I bounced back a bit there at the end.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was so good. I remember loving the Emily Windsnap books when I was little, and I feel like this mermaid adventure just made me fall in love with mermaids all over again. Celeste was such a lovable protagonist and I found myself HEAVILY feeling for her. All of her little internal dialogues telling herself that crying was bad and that she was weak REALLY resonated with me. Also, looking at this book as a retelling of the Little Mermaid (I havenāt really read the original story, but I do know the Disney movie), it did a good job too. It was definitely different, but itās a RETELLING, so thatās good. The book really shines through with its world and characters. Something I loved was how Celesteās mom was concerned about her daughter first and foremost instead of being the stoic, strict queen all of the time. I thought that was super refreshing and showed how, although she was a queen, she still was a mother. Kiyami, Torben, and Nasir were also AMAZING characters and I loved them so much. Celesteās first impression of the human world and then growing to love it was really nice to watch as well and it didnāt get too repetitive for me. Although, I wish a little more time had been spent with the sirens as I didnāt care all too much about them. That being said, I loved the world and magic set up. It all made sense and the legends/myths of this world helped it come to life. The human port cities were cool too. I do have some issues with the character Raiden. He felt like his character wasnāt fully established and it didnāt make sense for him to play for the other side in my opinion. Like, if you think your dad killed your mom, why do you keep seeking his approval? But, I think heāll move past that in the sequel. All in all, this book was CHARMING. I loved it a lot and really want to read more of these characters.
Will I ever stop talking about this book? No.
This is now my whole personality
This is now my whole personality
Thereās nothing like falling in love with a book only for the ending to be wholly unsatisfying. To be clear (since itās not made clear by the blurb from the publisher): this is NOT a standalone. The ending brought this potential 5 star book down for me.
This is a Little Mermaid retelling with teeth. It follows the initial storyline of the Little Mermaid until it veers way off course- in the best of ways. Gritty pirates, ruthless sirens, gods and goddesses, and a completely different dynamic between the FMC and MMC make this entirely different and better than the traditional Little Mermaid story. The story building highlighted a beautiful underwater kingdom and the not so lovely details of life aboard a ship. The true hate between the FMC and MMC was refreshing break from the typical āenemies to loversā formula.
The ending is where it all fell apart. So much happened, which isnāt necessarily a bad way to end a story, but I felt a true lack of resolution. Celeste had so much character growth but spiraled right back to where she was at the start. Raiden also pulled an about face in terms of development. I donāt know how else to say it. The found family aspect was beautiful, but it felt like a long journey just for the main characters to switch back to their original ways.
TO BE CLEAR: I really enjoyed the book. I canāt wait for the next one. But the ending really left a sour taste in my mouth.
The narrator is perfect and can do no wrong. Thereās a reason Natalie Naudus has won so many awards for voice acting. She did an excellent job with the narration.
Thank you Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for the ALC.
This is a Little Mermaid retelling with teeth. It follows the initial storyline of the Little Mermaid until it veers way off course- in the best of ways. Gritty pirates, ruthless sirens, gods and goddesses, and a completely different dynamic between the FMC and MMC make this entirely different and better than the traditional Little Mermaid story. The story building highlighted a beautiful underwater kingdom and the not so lovely details of life aboard a ship. The true hate between the FMC and MMC was refreshing break from the typical āenemies to loversā formula.
The ending is where it all fell apart. So much happened, which isnāt necessarily a bad way to end a story, but I felt a true lack of resolution. Celeste had so much character growth but spiraled right back to where she was at the start. Raiden also pulled an about face in terms of development. I donāt know how else to say it. The found family aspect was beautiful, but it felt like a long journey just for the main characters to switch back to their original ways.
TO BE CLEAR: I really enjoyed the book. I canāt wait for the next one. But the ending really left a sour taste in my mouth.
The narrator is perfect and can do no wrong. Thereās a reason Natalie Naudus has won so many awards for voice acting. She did an excellent job with the narration.
Thank you Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for the ALC.
Series information: Book 1 in new untitled series
Steam Level: 1 out of 5 (Glimpses and kisses)
Romance Level: 4 out of 5 (Romance story with independent fantasy plot)
Page Count: 400 pages
How I Read It: E-book and audiobook borrowed from Libby
Audiobook performance: 3 out of 5 (It got the job done) - The narrator's voice sounded a little older than the character is. Her performance of the protagonist's internal monologue did capture the protagonist's feelings pretty well. But her voicing of the other characters' dialogue fell pretty flat for me.
Review
This starts out as almost a one-for-one retelling of Disney's The Little Mermaid. The opening scene where Celeste sees the prince on the ship for the first time is basically a shot-for-shot copy of that scene in The Little Mermaid. Celeste is the beloved youngest daughter of the siren king and queen. Except she doesn't fit into societal expectations. Her parents are super strict and won't let her do the things she wants to do. The rest of the story then kind of shifts to Pirates of the Caribbean vibes with a sheltered princess amongst a hodgepodge crew.
You spend a LOT of time in Celeste's internal thought processes. This is a YA story, so her internal monologue reads very juvenile. Her characterization is extremely naĆÆve and sheltered. The things she worried about got a bit too repetitive to me. The book really wanted to hammer home that Celeste felt too big feelings. And internal back and forth between, "I have to kill the prince" and "But I don't want to kill the prince" was also a bit too much for me. It's not that it's poorly written--I think it might resonate well with a younger audience. But it just didn't resonate with me.
I also though that her discovering human things got real old real fast. It's one thing when your protagonist is a newcomer to a strange world and the reader is discovering those strange new things a long with the protagonist. But in this story, Celeste is a newcomer to the human world that the reader is already familiar with. So it got a little tiresome for a huge chunk of the book to just be devoted to Celeste discovering new things, like horses and dresses and knees and oranges and fireworks and sweat.
I also wasn't a big fan of a lot of the baby's first steps storylines. Her learning to walk. Her learning to swordfight. Her learning to read. Yes, I get that she's a siren and of course all this is new to her. But the vibes I get was that she just came off as so childish. But then inexplicably there would be things she's just randomly amazing at. Like being good at fighting in general and good at dancing. Like sure, she trained when she was a siren, but why would she be good at those things with legs and gravity? It just felt like the author randomly decided things Celeste had to be good at so she wasn't completely useless at everything. But there was no logic to why she'd be good at one thing but not the other.
The story is extremely slow for like 65% of the book. After that it picks up in action, but there isn't that much lore explanation until the last 20%. And the last 20% is just a crazy lore dump that comes out of nowhere. The pacing was definitely off, so a lot of the lore ended up being exposition. The way things played out was...fine. Nothing illegally terrible but definitely nothing to write home about.
The romance is your usual romantasy love story with the hot but forbidden prince. Again, it all read so juvenile to me that I had a hard time believing that they really loved each other. It felt like it never truly moved beyond a teenage crush to me.
Also the book does end on a cliffhanger--not sure if the author has already sold a whole series or not.
Ultimately, people will enjoy this book if they want Little Mermaid meets Pirates of the Caribbean vibes. And if they are open to reading a coming of age story where the protagonist starts off extremely young and naĆÆve. The love story and fantasy story are pretty simple and enough to carry the plot. In the end, I enjoyed it enough, but I'm not champing at the bit to see how the story continues.
Steam Level: 1 out of 5 (Glimpses and kisses)
Romance Level: 4 out of 5 (Romance story with independent fantasy plot)
Page Count: 400 pages
How I Read It: E-book and audiobook borrowed from Libby
Audiobook performance: 3 out of 5 (It got the job done) - The narrator's voice sounded a little older than the character is. Her performance of the protagonist's internal monologue did capture the protagonist's feelings pretty well. But her voicing of the other characters' dialogue fell pretty flat for me.
Review
This starts out as almost a one-for-one retelling of Disney's The Little Mermaid. The opening scene where Celeste sees the prince on the ship for the first time is basically a shot-for-shot copy of that scene in The Little Mermaid. Celeste is the beloved youngest daughter of the siren king and queen. Except she doesn't fit into societal expectations. Her parents are super strict and won't let her do the things she wants to do. The rest of the story then kind of shifts to Pirates of the Caribbean vibes with a sheltered princess amongst a hodgepodge crew.
You spend a LOT of time in Celeste's internal thought processes. This is a YA story, so her internal monologue reads very juvenile. Her characterization is extremely naĆÆve and sheltered. The things she worried about got a bit too repetitive to me. The book really wanted to hammer home that Celeste felt too big feelings. And internal back and forth between, "I have to kill the prince" and "But I don't want to kill the prince" was also a bit too much for me. It's not that it's poorly written--I think it might resonate well with a younger audience. But it just didn't resonate with me.
I also though that her discovering human things got real old real fast. It's one thing when your protagonist is a newcomer to a strange world and the reader is discovering those strange new things a long with the protagonist. But in this story, Celeste is a newcomer to the human world that the reader is already familiar with. So it got a little tiresome for a huge chunk of the book to just be devoted to Celeste discovering new things, like horses and dresses and knees and oranges and fireworks and sweat.
I also wasn't a big fan of a lot of the baby's first steps storylines. Her learning to walk. Her learning to swordfight. Her learning to read. Yes, I get that she's a siren and of course all this is new to her. But the vibes I get was that she just came off as so childish. But then inexplicably there would be things she's just randomly amazing at. Like being good at fighting in general and good at dancing. Like sure, she trained when she was a siren, but why would she be good at those things with legs and gravity? It just felt like the author randomly decided things Celeste had to be good at so she wasn't completely useless at everything. But there was no logic to why she'd be good at one thing but not the other.
The story is extremely slow for like 65% of the book. After that it picks up in action, but there isn't that much lore explanation until the last 20%. And the last 20% is just a crazy lore dump that comes out of nowhere. The pacing was definitely off, so a lot of the lore ended up being exposition. The way things played out was...fine. Nothing illegally terrible but definitely nothing to write home about.
The romance is your usual romantasy love story with the hot but forbidden prince. Again, it all read so juvenile to me that I had a hard time believing that they really loved each other. It felt like it never truly moved beyond a teenage crush to me.
Also the book does end on a cliffhanger--not sure if the author has already sold a whole series or not.
Ultimately, people will enjoy this book if they want Little Mermaid meets Pirates of the Caribbean vibes. And if they are open to reading a coming of age story where the protagonist starts off extremely young and naĆÆve. The love story and fantasy story are pretty simple and enough to carry the plot. In the end, I enjoyed it enough, but I'm not champing at the bit to see how the story continues.